Shire fights to save doctors

By Michael Sinclair-Jones

HIGH-LEVEL talks to attract new doctors to Toodyay are underway after last month’s shock revelation that the town’s medical centre will close by the end of November.

GP service provider Wheatbelt Health Network announced at the end of last month that it would cease operating in Toodyay “no later than November 30”.

Toodyay’s medical crisis was due to be raised with Federal National Party leaders at a state party conference in Perth last month and at a WA Local Government Association State Council meeting on September 8-9.

The Northam-based Wheatbelt Health Network provides Toodyay with two part-time GPs and one part-time nurse practitioner who operate as independent contractors.

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Shire rubbish charges, rates and fees to rise

 

By Michael Sinclair-Jones

TOODYAY residents will pay higher fees and charges, and most rates will increase by an average of 3.05 per cent in a new Shire of Toodyay budget adopted last month.

Councillors have voted themselves a 17.4 per cent pay rise overall, and administration staff salaries will rise by 15 per cent.

The cost of household rubbish collections will rise from $241 to $259 a year, along with price increases for a range of other shire fees and community services.

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Toodyay Club reopens

THE beleagured Toodyay Club will hold a ‘grand reopening’ under new management at 3pm on Friday September 2 after rising debt forced the premises to close in mid-July.

The club will host a new bowling tournament which starts on Saturday September 3.

Storms bring down tree, flood roads but farmers happy

AN UNUSUALY wet and stormy August caused local flooding and a big tree to crash into a children’s playground at Duidgee Park last month.

Nobody was injured.

It was the only serious storm damage reported to Shire of Toodyay emergency staff but police were called to rescue a large dog stranded in an abandoned car near flooded Katrine Bridge.

Local farmers say the rain, interspersed with sunny days, has helped to boost crop and pasture growth without the waterlogging that hampered access to paddocks during last year’s growing season.

Last-minute bid to save community resource centre from closure

Manager Nicole Coleman at Toodyay Community Resource Centre.

By Michael Sinclair-Jones

TOODYAY councillors were holding an emergency meeting at the start of this month in a last-minute bid to prevent the permanent closure of the town’s cash-strapped community resource centre.

The centre shut its doors for a week at the end of last month, warning that it may not have enough money to re-open.

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Toodyay Club forced to shut amid rising debt

Pot Black – Toodyay Club member Steve Andrijich prepares to ‘break’ on one of the few remaining full-sized billiard and snooker tables left in the Wheatbelt. It was originally installed at Stirling House which was formed as a ‘gentlemen’s club’ in Stirling Terrace opposite the bakery 117 years ago. The table is free for use by Toodyay Club members and guests, and has been kept in very good condition.

By Michael Sinclair-Jones

THE TOODYAY Club in Oddfellow Street has been forced to close and a meeting will be held this month to decide its fate.

The club shut its doors in the middle of last month after a long period of rising debt.
Bowlers can continue to use the club’s synthetic green but not its other facilities – including a members’ bar and commercial kitchen – both of which closed last month.

Keys to toilets and washrooms on bowling days must be now arranged in advance.

A club meeting has been called for 10am Saturday August 6 for members, bowlers and supporters to decide if they want the facility to re-open and if it is possible to keep trading.

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Victory at last for local RSL veterans

TOODYAY RSL members are celebrating victory after being granted their own land on which to build their first permanent headquarters in town after a 103-year wait.

The Toodyay Shire Council voted 8-0 last month to “gift” its former parks and gardens depot site in Clinton Street to the RSL.

It follows more than a century of local government wrangling and red tape, including 65 years of cramped temporary accommodation in the front foyer of the Toodyay Memorial Hall in Stirling Terrace.

Ownership of four parcels of land (pictured above) will be transferred to RSL WA and provide security of tenure to enable local veterans to raise funds to build new premises.

The site includes a large metal shed which local RSL members aim to sell.

 

Djilba – yellow wildflowers, swooping magpies and abundant bush tucker

The flowers are already coming, and many local bush blocks will soon be carpeted (as above) in yellow Prickly Moses (Acacia Pulchella), Egg and Bacon (Eutaxia Obovata) and delicate bush orchids, the first of which have already appeared in our shire. It is the season of Djilba in the Avon Valley, home to local Noongar people for 45,000 years – read more about our community’s priceless Avon Valley legacy in this month’s Noongar Waangkiny report on Page 11 of this month’s digital edition (see home page). Photo: Michael Sinclair-Jones.

 

Voters asked if they want council cut

Toodyay’s current nine-member shire council (former Cr Ben Bell absent).

Michael Sinclair-Jones

TOODYAY voters are being asked if they want to cut the size of their shire council from nine to seven members.

Councillors voted 8-0 last month to advertise a review of councillor numbers in line with WA Government reforms which are expected to be introduced into State Parliament before the end of this year.

Toodyay currently has eight sitting members after former Cr Ben Bell resigned his seat at the end of January, leaving 20 months of his four-year term left to serve.

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Shire declares Toodyay a road freight ‘choke point’

A large semi-trailer is forced to cross into the path of oncoming traffic to travel across Newcastle Bridge after having to crawl around five sharp right-angled bends through residential streets on Toodyay’s ill-suited temporary heavy haulage truck bypass.

TOODYAY will continue to press for a new heavy haulage truck bypass around the town after being told recently that it is not on Main Roads WA’s current works agenda.

A new bypass was listed fourth on a list of five Toodyay Shire Council priorities in 2016.
It resulted in minor roadworks on the existing route, which has five right-angle bends on busy local residential roads.

New shire councillors voted last month to raise a new town bypass to top priority.
WA’s road funding authority was told that Toodyay is a road freight “choke point”.

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